Al Sharpton was a FBI informant

[Holac]

 

(AP) The Rev Al Sharpton, the radical civil rights leader who is now a close ally of President Obama, was a Federal Bureau of Investigation informer who helped to jail a number of Mafia bosses, it has been claimed.

 

An investigation by the Smoking Gun website claims that the 69-year-old television host and White House regular was "turned" by the FBI after being implicated in a drug deal.

 

The website said that he agreed to wear a wire tap during conversations with Mob bosses, including leading members of the Genovese crime family, the largest and most feared Mafia outfit in the United States.

 

A Baptist minister who is said to have been targeted by the FBI because of his extensive contacts in the music and sports industry, as well as the New York underworld, Mr Sharpton has always denied being a "snitch."

 

He has said that his only contact with the police was to gather information in order to help drive out drug dealing in the black communities he worked in.

 

But the Smoking Gun website claimed that interviews with a number of detectives on a joint FBI and police taskforce called the Genovese squad revealed that Mr Sharpton was a valued informer who delivered at least 10 taped conversations that led to the jailing of a number of mobsters.

 

It also produced internal documents showing that the recordings were used to help gain court approval for further secret taping at gang members' homes and other places they associated.

 

Asked why he cooperated with the police, who in public he frequently lambasted, one unnamed former member of the squad said: "He thought he didn't have a choice," after being taped by an agent pretending to be a drug dealer apparently agreeing to buy cocaine.

 

Starting in the mid-1980s with the codename CI-7 - for Covert Investigator number seven - he is said to have operated as a police spy for about four years.

 

In one lengthy memo, the agents discussed how Mr Sharpton's identity could be concealed from the court in order to protect him from Mafia reprisals.

 

The FBI are also said to have provided him with a briefcase containing a secret camera, with which to record members of four of the five New York crime families he is said to have been familiar with.

 

Those said to have been bugged include organised crime associates Dominick "Baldy Dom" Canterino, music industry supremo Morris Levy, and Federico "Fritzy" Giovanelli.

 

He also allegedly passed on information about Don King, the boxing promoter.

 

A prominent supporter of and fundraiser for President Obama, Mr Sharpton was on the dias on the steps of the US Capitol building when he was sworn in last year. He also attended a private 50th birthday party at the White House for the President's wife, Michelle.

 

In his 2013 book "The Rejected Stone," Mr Sharpton denied being an informer, saying that he was once "set up by the government," whose agents later leaked "false information" that "could have gotten me killed."

 

Questioned about the allegations this week, he denied being "flipped" by federal agents. Asked about the secret recording he added: "I'm not saying yes, I'm not saying no."

 

AP

[Hawdian]

National Negro Association , have a sound to it.you should join zapperman, latisha and all the originals .

[Alpha Blondy]

he brought down white Italians so he's not a snitch.

[DoctorKenney]

Al Sharpton is a race-baiting hustler who constantly panders to people's lowest instincts.

 

The sooner he becomes irrelevant, the better.

[burahadeer]

Kudos to him if brought down drug dealers & criminals.Any gov't could also falsely implicate or destroy anyone exposing their filth whetha he environmentalist or freedom fighter.